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Sometimes I can’t sleep. It’s plagued me as long as I remember. If you suffer from poor sleep, no sleep or high stress, read this great article and try some of the suggestions. It will make a difference for you. Some other things that you can do right now, today will help you to sleep better are:

Sleeping well isn’t a random act. You can’t make it up. If you plan for a good night’s sleep, you’ll probably get it. It takes time to build good routines, healthy habits and yes, there will always be setbacks. Don’t let let one bad night turn into two. And get an audiobook or two to keep in the cue…

An awful poet, dumped by his girlfriend, roams through Italy, where he clearly doesn’t belong; an oil delivery man falls in love with a clumsy woman and becomes even clumsier than she is; and a six year old and his father kill over two hundred flies at a horse farm while the father wonders about life and death. Poor Advice and Other Stories, with its mix of the serious and the absurd, reveals Lou Gaglia’s humor, imagination, and range. A man avoids paying a World Series bet to a dying old woman; a vindictive whale chases after movie stars; and a man is jealous of his brother-in-law’s ventriloquist dummy. Find these stories and many others in Mr. Gaglia’s debut book.

In Poor Advice and Other Stories, Lou Gaglia puts the entertainment back in literary fiction.

Praise for Poor Advice

Lou Gaglia has a knack for taking mundane, everyday tasks—like pumping gas, selling pools, and getting your car repaired—and turning them into the funniest and most damn profound stories you’ve ever read. Don’t let the title fool you. Gaglia’s stories are full of good advice. Just don’t take any of them too seriously or you may find your life in shambles.

─ NATHANIEL TOWER, author of Jealous Wives, Foolish Husbands

In Poor Advice and Other Stories, Lou Gaglia puts the entertainment back in literary fiction. Many of his characters seem laughable and misguided in their fumbling ways, especially with regard to their attempts at approaching the opposite sex, but the reader will come to love them for their heart-warming innocence. You will laugh, you will cry, but mostly you will go away remembering his vivid characters, his spot on dialogue, and his varying modes of conveying the stories in this unique collection, all of which reflect the talents of an outstanding fiction writer.

— MITCHELL WALDMAN—author of Petty Offenses and Crimes of the Heart

The downtrodden characters that populate Poor Advice chisel away at their blue-collar circumstances and by stories end, without your consent, there’s a fissure splintering your heart. Lou Gaglia is a spellbinding writer who gathers material from the underbelly gutter-stuff and conjures up a bit of hope for the hopeless, a place to call home from the homeless, and a fighter’s chance at love for the lonely strangers who are, after all, a lot like us.

— JASON OCKERT—author of Wasp Box

His readers will find in Lou Gaglia’s Poor Advice a new voice in contemporary short fiction, a voice mad memorable by its sensitivity to language as it is spoken today, yet expressing the old verities of the human heart.

—EARL INGERSOLL, Emeritus Distinguished Professor of English, State University of New York at Brockport.

“Shake yourself free from the restraints of the ordinary—enter the clever and oh-so-quirky mind of Lou Gaglia and his oddly so, strangely so, poignant cast of characters.”

— KATHRYN MAGENDIE—author of SWEETIE

“What I like best about the people and places that populate Lou Gaglia’s Poor Advice is that they’re all familiar to me. But this is no mean familiarity. Anything but, in fact. These are the people that you meet in your dreams and the places you’ve visited only in your imagination: people whose correspondence fail to see the big picture, obsess over one random-seeming detail of their daily routine, are occasionally an orca. It’s nice to get to know them better

— MATT ROWAN, author of Big Venerable

Although, many of these stories are satirical and/or humorous, such as “Orca (A Madcap Thriller)”, a satire of Jaws, and “Days of Wine and Pratfalls,” about a waitress who infects her boyfriend with her clumsiness as she learns to be graceful by practicing yoga, some stories such as “Little Leagues” and “This Is My Montauk” delve into serious subjects such as the long-term effects of bullying and drugs in their narrators’ neighbourhoods. Both of these stories, due to their realism and candor, are worth the sum of all the humour and entertainment in this book. Poor Advice is a fine, well-balanced, collection of short stories and comes with “A Reader’s Guide” that could facilitate discussion of this book in secondary and tertiary educational settings. It is certainly one that will not disappoint either recreational and/or academic readers.

― AMSTERDAM QUARTERLY REVIEW

Poor Advice and Other Stories is a fantastic book of short stories written by Lou Gaglia. I would call these stories “short shorts”, as most of them are only a few pages long, making them very easy to read. The stories run the gamut from funny to sweet to weird to complex, and the cast of characters is delightful. From the carpet cleaner with a grudge to a young man making a trek to Rome to forget a lost love, to a Russian spy and an American priest, these stories and their characters will keep readers entertained.

Although I enjoy short stories I do prefer novels, so I generally read short stories by Stephen King or some other author whose work I know I’ll enjoy. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I picked up Poor Advice and Other Stories by Lou Gaglia, but the title was so intriguing, I had to give it a chance. As soon as I started reading Hands, which is a letter to a cashier by her long-suffering secret admirer, I was hooked. The writing is beautiful, the characters are complex – something that is difficult for an author to achieve with only a few pages – and best of all, the voice in each story is unique.

So often, a book of short stories ends up sounding like the same story over and over again. Not here. Lou Gaglia is really an excellent story teller. There were one or two stories that I did not care for, but that’s to be expected when the stories are so varied, and so many. I would certainly suggest Poor Advice and Other Stories to others, and I will be looking for more of Lou Gaglia’s work.

When Author Shaun Webb was preparing to write Lost Youth: A True Story, he was told about a strange prediction about the murder of a 13 year old Waterford Township girl. The murder victim and her friends were at a sleepover, playing with a Ouijia board when one of the girls innocently asked the board if they “would all be friends for ever.” What happened next sent chills down my spine…

The Ouijia board spelled out the letters, IN ONE WEEK, ONE WILL DIE. When the ominous prediction came true just a few days later in the early morning hours of October 31st, 1981, the Ouijia board was immediately destroyed. The story doesn’t end there but if you’d like to know the rest, sign up for the newsletter at the official website for the newsletter and extra content for Lost Youth: A True Story at Devil’sNightCrimeSpree.com.

You will receive bonus content as well as other updates to the story as they become available.

Meanwhile, purchase the audiobook here to get a glimpse into the killer’s twisted mind, learn about the sweet young girl who was lost and the story of a mother’s incredible strength and determination in the face of such brutal crimes. You weigh the facts, follow the investigation with police, hear from suspects as well as the victim’s friends in this intimate true crime story that is still shrouded in mystery, even today. Are you brave enough to seek the truth?

Plus you’ll be automatically entered to win one of 5 FREE Audiobooks being given away to subscribers.

Yesterday, I received word that Logan Neill passed away. Although I was aware of his health concerns, I never expected him to leave us so swiftly, as like many things in life, I had taken his presence on the planet for granted and assumed he would bull-through as he had always seemed to do. Logan leaves behind his son George, daughter Sally and their respective families and a stadium full of friends who’s lives were all enriched through knowing Logan. For those of my friends who not lucky enough to know him, He was a force. A presence. He loved music and he loved to laugh. He especially loved to share these loves and he made a lasting impression on me. Logan was indeed, legendary.

I first met Logan many years ago and we became fast friends over our common bond of music and our broadcast radio endeavors. Logan and his lovely wife Susan Ford Neil, hosted a regular bluegrass and acoustic music show on the local community radio station, WMNF in Tampa, Florida and I was working as a producer on the Lionel show at WFLA, also in Tampa.

His dry wit and sardonic sense of humor was the hallmark of our every interaction. Soon he introduced me to Susan Ford Neill who struck me as being as beautiful on the outside as she was as a person. Their children, both amazing kids – have since grown into amazing people. It was clear to me that Logan was able to attract, nurture and surround himself with amazing, interesting, diverse and beautiful people and I considered myself lucky to be among them for a brief moment in time.

As time went on and our friendship grew, he asked me to sit in with them on the “Traffic Jam show” allowing me to pick and play music from my eclectic tastes. He entrusted me to host the show alone whenever he and Susan needed time to accomplish other things within the musical community. It was an honor for me and a gift he shared so easily.

Knowing of my “rabid fandom” of Tony Rice, legendary guitarist, Logan arranged an opportunity for me to not only meet the man but run sound for a concert he was doing in St. Petersburg. It was an honor and I’ll never forget that whole experience. Logan just grinned that wry grin of his at me, knowing full well what he was doing.

When he and Susan began booking acts and doing shows at the State Theater in St. Petersburg, he invited me to bar tend there. What that did for me was introduce me to an amazing array of my musical idols. I met and shook hands with many of my favorite musicians. I shared beers with a few more and I got to have my photograph taken with James Cotton, the man who inspired me to learn to play blues harmonica! I was introduced to acts I never heard of and most of all, I was able to make a few extra bucks and that was extremely helpful. I could have never had the experiences, the highlights I had in my life without Logan Neil.

During the days at the State Theater, a guitarist named John Gorka came through. I had just become aware of him and loved his way of telling a story through song. After his show, we spoke briefly and I ran out the next day to buy all of his music. He played a song during his set that always stuck with me. It summed up the experience of working with Logan and Susan at the state theater so perfectly. I would always think of Logan when this song played and when I heard that Logan passed away, the song played again in my head. Thank you John. And thank you Logan. You are legend.

Click to download some free music I recorded with my Acid Planet friend and very talented guitarist Aidan Browne. It is kind of a snapshot in time. The song was produced many many years ago. It was written around autumn with views from a moving train in mind. I hope you’ll enjoy listening to it as much we did making it.

Folks, there it is. My sales for audio books for the month of August. Now I know what you’re thinking…. “That’s pathetic.” But hear me out before you judge. At the beginning of this month, I didn’t have ANY audio books to sell. So, while these numbers may not be impressive, I’m hopeful they will be – and THAT is my take-away. Now please, contain your laughter until I’ve at least left the room.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, you can buy “How To Study” By Enrique Romero now on Amazon.com, Audible and iTunes.

This guide will help you identify and modify your study habits, prepare for tests and still maintain an active, healthy lifestyle. Build good study habits that will lead you towards a lifetime of success. Available now in print or audiobook formats!